Battle for top spot between Chennai, Delhi

Having already qualified for the playoffs, Delhi Capitals will look to consolidate their top position when they face Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday.

DC qualified for the playoffs after seven years as they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 16 runs at their home ground on Sunday.

The young team, led by Shreyas Iyer, seems to have their bases covered with all departments performing in this edition of the IPL. Players like Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Iyer and Rishabh Pant have led from the front in the batting department, while in bowling they have been spearheaded by Kagiso Rabada, who is having a dream run this season.

On the other hand, CSK have not been at their best this season despite being the first team to seal a playoff berth. In the two matches that MS Dhoni has not played, they have not been able to handle the pressure and have lost the game. So, they would be desperately hoping that their regular skipper regains full fitness before the business end of the tournament.

CSK would, however, like to take confidence from their win against Delhi when the two teams met at the Feroz Shah Kotla on March 26.

Squads:

Chennai Super Kings: Harbhajan Singh, Shane Watson, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Karn Sharma, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu, Imran Tahir, Faf du Plessis, Deepak Chahar, Mohit Sharma, Shardul Thakur, Dhruv Shorey, Scott Kuggeleijn, Monu Kumar, Mitchell Santner, Chaitanya Bishnoi, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KM Asif

Delhi Capitals Squad: Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra, Colin Ingram, Colin Munro, Jalaj Saxena, Trent Boult, Chris Morris, Hanuma Vihari, Bandaru Ayyappa, Axar Patel, Ankush Bains, Shreyas Iyer (c), Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Tewatia, Avesh Khan, Jagadeesha Suchith, Nathu Singh, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sandeep Lamichhane, Keemo Paul, Prithvi Shaw, Manjot Kalra, Sherfane Rutherford

--IANS

aak/bc